The new owner of the New Denver Civic Theatre is most likely to be the old owner, Richard Bernstein.

Bernstein, who lost the Civic to the Bank of Evergreen when he fell $100,000 behind on rent and his landlord went into bankruptcy, is busy putting together a team to buy the theater at 721 Santa Fe Drive, he said Monday.

Bernstein saw our Sunday column right here, in which local activist and Civic supporter Paul Fiorino expressed the hope that a consortium of local arts groups will step up and by the theater, keeping it out of the hands of condo-builders.

So is the New Denver Civic Theatre really where good theater goes to die? If so, why? I wanna know … Weigh in here …

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In the wake of the New Denver Civic Theatre’s most recent troubles (read about it here, a reader opined, “that building is cursed.”

Opened in 1986 by Henry Lowenstein, you wouldn’t think so. Sure, parking is a pill, but that’s true at most theaters. The Civic has 289-seat and 105-seat theaters, a bar, liquor license, art gallery, and the potential for a restaurant or cafe. There’s no reason in the world it shouldn’t work for … someone. Is there?

And yet the list of characters and companies that have come and gone (some reputable, others nefarious) is long and sad, including Industrial Arts, HorseChart, Brantley Dunaway, Mitchell Maxwell, Richard Bernstein and Theatre Group among them.Read more…